


and see how the fear of death becomes her

by kimaracretak



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Body Horror, F/F, Hate Sex, Impregnation, Magic, Power Dynamics, dubcon possibly, i'm not sure if this merits an M or an E rating but there's an awful lot of sex, it's fey ladies and power struggles but also sex-as-part-of-a-willing-deal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 14:40:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9661754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimaracretak/pseuds/kimaracretak
Summary: (broke the vow i thought you made, my angel, why... / settling the score, we pass the twilight): "A quarter of my civilisation," Keyleth hisses. Surely her nails must be drawing blood from Vax's palm, but he doesn't make a sound. "How many of their lives can you give me back?"Or; Raishan has a deal, and Keyleth has conditions





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Sonata Arctica, '[Don't Say a Word](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a832buj-2nw)', summary quote from [Xandria's cover of the same](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM2LOrsCkxQ)
> 
> For the kinkmeme prompt '[Raishan/Any, Raishan agrees to completely sever any ties with Thordak, but only if one or more members of VM will impregnate her](http://criticalkink.dreamwidth.org/700.html?thread=161468#cmt161468)', because I am incapable of resisting the opportunity to write fey ladies and power struggles
> 
> The mentioned Keyleth/Allura is in the (non-explicit) context of my Pike/Vex/Keyleth/Allura/Kima ot5 feelings which were not meant to sneak in here but self-control is, like, fake

"Surely you can't think me entirely unreasonable."

Raishan, today in the form of a human woman with long dark green hair and diseased black veins twining down her arms like vines, definitely doesn't look like _she_  considers herself unreasonable, and it makes Keyleth feel the anger crawling under her skin like a sick mirror of Raishan's life even more keenly.

"You want one of us to impregnate you before you fight Thordak with us," Vax says, and it doesn't sound any better in his words than hers. "That's pretty fucking unreasonable, if you ask me."

Raishan smirks. "I didn't ask you. I'm merely stating the terms of a trade. A life for a death." Her eyes find Keyleth's across the table. "You of all of them should understand, druid."

"A _quarter of my civilisation_ ," Keyleth hisses. Surely her nails must be drawing blood from Vax's palm, but he doesn't make a sound. "How many of their lives can you give me back?"

Raishan smiles as she stands, smooth as the wind. "Why don't you find out tonight?" She circles the table and heads for the door. Strokes Keyleth's hair as she leaves, the claws of one long-fingered hand catching in the strands and _pulling._  Keyleth can't hold back a gasp.

"Mm. I thought so," Raishan murmurs, for Keyleth's ears alone.

Not following her immediately is one of the hardest things Keyleth has ever done. She puts her head on Vax's shoulder and wills herself to stop shaking.

 

**

 

She knows better, but it still feels like an accident when she finds herself in front of Raishan's door that night, one of Vax's daggers strapped to her waist. He'd given it to her with steady hands and a look of so much love that she'd almost been grateful to leave.

Hating Raishan is easier, it has to be.

( _Then why,_ she doesn't ask herself, _isn't she dead?_

Raishan has a deal. Keyleth has a price. It has to be this way.)

The door opens before she can lift her hand to knock and Keyleth holds her breath as she steps over the threshold, feels the subtle _wrong_  of Raishan's green magic caress her skin.

"You came," Raishan says, and her voice is nearly a tangible thing. She's lounging naked across the armchair, a mockery of an offering, and Keyleth wants to make her bleed.

"We both knew I would," Keyleth says, and it's hardly even a lie. "What are you really asking for, here?"

Raishan sighs. "Exactly what I told you. A child. My intellect, and your..." She trails off, eyes raking up and down Keyleth's body, and Keyleth can feel herself blushing. "Your magic." She smiles, thin and hungry, and Keyleth swallows hard.

Keyleth walks forward almost despite herself, drawn by Raishan's voice. It's almost too simple. Almost. "A life for a death," she says steadily. "What about the lives of my people, Raishan? Hundreds and _hundreds_  of lives, what will you give me for them?"

She's close enough now that Raishan can trail a hand over her arm, fingernails like claws up and down, up and down. "Oh, child," Raishan says, half-breathless already and Keyleth thrills at the thought that maybe, just maybe, _she's_  done this to her. "If you could see the world I'll make from you."

It's a threat in a voice that only knows how to hold lies, and Keyleth bends to kiss her before she can say anything else.

It's hard and messy and not at all like kissing Vax or even like kissing Allura, whose magic had also sparked across her skin and reached out to twine with Keyleth's. Allura's magic had been protective and kind and Keyleth had melted into it; Raishan's is violent and eager and it's what Keyleth _needs_ , to push back against her in fury and feel her stand just a little less strong.

She bites Raishan's lip as she pulls back, hard enough to draw blood a shocking purple against her pink lips, and this time Raishan's sigh has a distinctly pleased edge.

"Oh, I _had_  hoped it would be you of all of them," she says, and her hands move with greater purpose now, one undoing Keyleth's belt and the other tugging at the straps of her dress. "Off with this, then."

She would almost rather not — Raishan is nothing, Raishan does not deserve her and never will — but there is a deal. Keyleth strips easily, watching Raishan all the while, taking pleasure in how quickly her eyes darken with lust. She can feel her own rage, waiting, _waiting_  until the right time to avenge her family, but to know how easy it is to strip Raishan of control ... _this_  is power.

Raishan's vanity has granted her a beautiful human form, and it is only the marks of her disease that keeps Keyleth from wanting to cover herself in the face of her frank appreciation. Raishan must read something of her hesitation, though, because she takes the lead this time, kissing Keyleth just as hard but far more practised, tongue curling between her lips and making Keyleth moan.

"Bed, I think," Raishan says, and Keyleth feels her smirk rather than sees it. She can feel the anger welling up inside her again, paired this time with a hot aching _want_ , wholly unexpected in its intensity. She doesn't answer aloud but bites down again, on the rage and Raishan's lips both as she wraps her fingers around Raishan's thin wrists and squeezes.

Too brittle there to bruise, Keyleth thinks as she walks them back towards the bed, more magic than skin. Magic that's fading in some places, scales lapping at skin near the darkest clusters of her disease. "You're very smart, you know," she says as she sits down on the edge of the bed. Pulls Raishan with her, and doesn't even mind that she's simply allowing her to do so. "We'll see how much that matters."

Raishan acts as if she hadn't spoken, just stares expectantly. Keyleth frowns, reaches out and pinches one nipple, and Raishan makes a small, pleased noise in response. "I had wondered if this was only going to be about business for you. Please, proceed." Keyleth pinches her again, harder, and this time succeeds in drawing a proper moan. She can feel herself growing wet at the thought of taking Raishan apart bit by bit over the course of the night. She will have one reward, at least, immediately.

"Such _energy_ ," Raishan murmurs, and Keyleth jolts as she feels the energy of a spell's beginning take root in her chest. She'd forgotten, for a moment, _why_  they were here together at the start of something that should never have needed to be. "I hadn't expected to enjoy this quite so much."

Keyleth runs her hands down Raishan's back, feels the seam between skin and scales and digs her nails in, imagining she could rip her in half, right now. "That makes two of us." Blood and magic rush through Raishan's body under her nails, and she presses them in deeper until the blood wells up against her fingers. "You're bleeding, Raishan," she says, and feels the word echo in her own body, _blood, blood, blood_  pounding under her skin, in her cunt.

Raishan smirks, claws puncturing Keyleth's shoulders in return as she shifts to trail her lips down Keyleth's neck. "Good," she says. "That's where everything starts, isn't it?"

"And ends," Keyleth says, and when she dips her hand between Raishan's legs two fingers slide inside her easily. "What was that about business?" Her fingers come back shiny, and she thinks that for all Raishan's talk, this has to be personal for her as well.

Raishan fists her hand in Keyleth's hair in response. "You should taste me," she says, and it's almost an evasion, not an order. Almost a victory. Keyleth presses her damp fingers to Raishan's mouth and shudders at the hot slide of her tongue, magic settling and merging between them.

She waits just long enough before slipping off the bed and to her knees in front of Raishan that it's not really a response to her words. It's easier than she had expected, fitting her mouth around Raishan, exploring every ridge and fold of skin. She tastes like her magic, old and sharp and nothing like Allura.

She's not precisely _pliant_  under Keyleth's mouth but she's warm, warm and responsive and Keyleth tightens her grip on Raishan's back, feels the blood under her hands just as slippery-sweet and Raishan's cunt under her mouth. She can live with this. They will all live with the aftermath of this night.

"Even you —" Raishan gasps, and then she falls silent as Keyleth licks deeper into her, drops her hands from her back to her thighs to spread her wider. When she looks up, Raishan is staring at her, and though she can't read the look in her eyes, she's unsettled.

"You know, I think I like you quiet," she says. "Lie back."

Raishan does so without complaint, though her eyes are distinctly mocking now. Keyleth climbs back onto the bed, settles between her thighs and carefully avoids her clit as she presses in with three fingers that Raishan lifts her hips to meet eagerly. Keyleth laughs. "Oh, I'm sorry, did you want something _besides_  a child from this?"

Raishan makes a disgruntled noise and reaches down to claw at Keyleth's wrist, and even through the haze of sex Keyleth bites her lip and tries not to think about how easy it would be for Raishan to weave poison into the magic drifting around them. She adds another finger instead, smiles when Raishan's breath hitches with the effort of stretching around her.

"Adding to our deal?" she manages, and Keyleth is almost unbearably slick between her legs at the thought that Raishan might be realising she's underestimated her.

Keyleth bends with a laugh, tastes the salt of Raishan's skin and the heavy metal of her magic."You're going to die," she whispers in between licks, moving her fingers faster and faster. "I know our deal but I will _not_ die before you."

She doesn't know if Raishan can hear her, only feels her clench tighter around her fingers like she could devour Keyleth this way, too. She can feel the magic gathering in the air, heavier and heavier, feeding on both of them and colouring the room all around them.

Raishan is close, and the magic is closer, and Keyleth shuts her eyes, twists her fingers inside Raishan and spreads them out again, four fingers as far apart as they can be, and Keyleth has to take her hand from Raishan's mouth to brush over her own aching clit at the thought of Raishan laid bare in front of her. She feels the spell complete as Raishan comes with a scream, floods Keyleth's mouth and hand with the taste of her and her magic and _life_.

Keyleth opens her eyes and lifts her head, keeps her hand still as Raishan rides out the aftershocks of orgasm against her fingers. She had expected to be relieved, when it was over, but all there is is satisfaction, and the hot curling _want_ that still hasn't abated.

"So," Raishan pants, and for a moment she looks so smug Keyleth wants to hurt her _more_ , wants to bite down on that pretty mouth so it will never smile again. "Do you think I've proven you right? Or wrong?"

"No," Keyleth says roughly as she pulls her fingers from Raishan's body abruptly, flipping them over and sitting up so she's straddling Raishan's waist. It's a night for pushing things, after all, and the sight of Raishan naked and flushed beneath her seems almost a challenge. "Not another word from you. Show me what your tongue can do besides lie."

Raishan's grin is almost feral as she pulls Keyleth forward, hard enough that her hands slam into the headboard. "Gladly."

 

**

 

Keyleth should leave, she knows this. And still she lies in sex-stained sheets, head resting on Raishan's still-human stomach, wondering what this means for them, for the fight ahead. There are practicalities to sort out, she knows, plans and strategies for the siege of Emon, but Keyleth's own business with Raishan is not yet done.  

She turns her head, presses her teeth into Raishan's skin. Enough to mark, not enough to wake her. The life-magic surges up towards her, fights against the physicality of the barrier between them.

One life in exchange for Thordak's death.

Keyleth smiles and thinks, _mine._

One life in exchange for every Raishan took.

(She did, after all, promise a world. Raishan is going to finish what she started, no matter what.)


End file.
